PayPal's board rejected Stripe and Advent International's $53 billion takeover bid, calling the $60.50-per-share offer too low.
Reports say the board wants closer to $70 a share to even consider a sale. Talks haven't collapsed though, sources told WSJ in mid-August the two sides are negotiating a higher price, with a deal possibly weeks away.
Nothing is signed. PayPal still trades independently on the Nasdaq, closing at $62.30 on August 20, already above the original offer.
The context matters here. New CEO Enrique Lores has spent 2026 tightening the company: a $1.5 billion cost cut, a 20% workforce reduction, and a reorg into three units, moves that read like prepping for a sale as much as fixing one.
Meanwhile Stripe, now valued at $159 billion, is the one with more to gain. It owns the backend but has no consumer wallet. PayPal has 439 million active accounts and the checkout button Stripe doesn't.
The real obstacle isn't price. It's antitrust, a combined entity would process an estimated $3.7 trillion a year, and regulators are likely to demand PayPal's Braintree unit gets sold off separately.